It is the perfect time of year to get away from the city and head to the North Fork Vineyards on Long Island for some wine tasting and farm fresh produce. This Saturday I had the pleasure of going on a fun filled day trip organized by Zogsports. Our agenda featured tastings at three vineyards, lunch, a hay ride and pumpkin picking.
We left from the Penn Station area at 8am and made excellent time to our first destination, the Peconic Bay Winery. It was a perfect sunny day and our group of 50 was set up at 2 long tables outside. The presentation was rather formal but also comfortable. Our host gave us an enthusiastic, detailed description of each wine and what distinguished it from the others. As someone who has limited wine knowledge I feel like I learned quite a bit. The wine was of excellent quality and most of us were eager to buy a few bottles to bring home.
After taking in the views of this vineyard and snapping some pictures it was time for our next destination, Harbes Family Farm. This is the perfect place to go in the fall season. There were large wagons full of pumpkins, lovely mums lining the walkways everywhere you look and a real country feel to everything you saw. The first thing our group did was to sit down for some lunch. I wasn't sure what to expect and based on past group trips I didn't have any high hopes regarding the food. Luckily, I was quite surprised with how appetizing this lunch was. We started off with fresh roasted sweet corn - a Harbes specialty. It was so delicious and fresh! Then we had mozzarella and tomato sandwiches followed by an apple. Overall, I was really impressed and quite happy with this lunch.
Next up we had a combination hayride and educational wine tasting. While a local farmer drove the tractor, guiding our wagon around the farm, we heard about and sampled some of the local wines produced at Harbes Farm. Their vineyard is relatively new and it was fun to be doing our tasting while driving by pumpkin patches and the actual vineyards where the grapes are grown. After the hayride tasting we went into the Wine Barn to taste their more reserved wines. We then had an hour of free time to pick pumpkins, run through the corn maze, buy some produce and just enjoy the Farm.
Our last destination was the Jamesport Vineyard where we not only had our group tasting but we also got to partake in the Oyster Festival going on this particular day. There was live music and a variety of fresh oysters to sample for $1 per oyster. I have not had them before (except the fried kind which is definitely not the same) so I made sure to try a few oysters. They were quite good. It was a different type of eating experience than I am used to but I was definitely glad I tried them!
At 5pm it was time to get back on the bus and return to city life. While we drove back many of us enjoyed some of our new wine purchases. I even saw someone dig in to the pumpkin pie they had bought. It was a relaxing trip home after such a fun filled day.
So that concluded our day trip to the North Fork of Long Island. I highly recommend signing up with Zogsports because it was so well organized and so much fun! You get to enjoy the vineyards and farms without any stress and all transportation is arranged for you. This particular group was not as inclined to mingling as other groups I have been in but we all still had a lot of fun. I spoke with someone who had gone on other trips with this company and they said past outings had more mingling so I guess it just depends on who signs up for your trip. Zogsports also offers ski trips, hiking and white water rafting outings. I plan to go skiing with them at some point this winter. They also have numerous sports league teams you can join. Check out their website for more info at http://www.zogsports.com/ .
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